The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Miami will host its annual graduate student conference, “Lands of Freedom? Oppressions, Subversions and Pursuits of Justice in a Changing World,” on February 9, 2018. We seek engagement with graduate students from all regions and at all levels of study who are interested in moments and spaces of change, resistance, and politics that confront or affirm human dignity. While recent events around the globe highlight the urgency

The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Miami will host its annual graduate student conference, “Lands of Freedom? Oppressions, Subversions and Pursuits of Justice in a Changing World,” on February 9, 2018. We seek engagement with graduate students from all regions and at all levels of study who are interested in moments and spaces of change, resistance, and politics that confront or affirm human dignity. While recent events around the globe highlight the urgency of this dialogue, historical analysis also demonstrates that justice, oppression, and subversion manifest in various ways throughout time.

What factors enable certain areas of the globe to boast histories of freedom, while others seem to wade through endless violence and war? Who sanctions narratives that determine who is free and who is oppressed? How have the representation and rights of indigenous peoples and subaltern populations changed over time? How do conflicting narratives of freedom and oppression operate within a single society, or among several? Does our ready access to images and videos through social media provide a new platform for understanding human conflict and dignity? Is democratic freedom merely utopic?